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"He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree."
That is just one of
the finalists from a contest to find the most amusing analogies and
metaphors from the nation's high school students.
In the
contest, English teachers from across the country
submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in
high school essays. These excerpts are published each year for
the amusement of teachers across the country.
At Speechworks, we coach our students to use
analogies and metaphors to explain complex things. We don’t necessarily recommend that you use these
below in your business presentations. But we thought we’d pass them along
anyway because they're so much fun.
Here are last year's winners.....
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Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two
sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
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His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking
alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
-
He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience,
like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse
without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes
around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of
looking at a solar eclipse, without one of those boxes with a
pinhole in it.
-
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli, and he was
room-temperature Canadian beef.
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She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog
makes just before it throws up.
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Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
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He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
-
The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated
because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a
surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
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The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way
a bowling ball wouldn't.
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McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag
filled with vegetable soup.
-
From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an
eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another
city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
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Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a
sneeze.
-
The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots
when you fry them in hot grease.
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Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced
across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains,
one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the
other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
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They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket
fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
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John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds
who had also never met.
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He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she
was the East River.
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Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap,
only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
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Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
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The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike
Phil, this plan just might work.
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The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not
eating for a while.
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He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck,
either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from
stepping on a land mine or something.
-
The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended
one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
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It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around
with power tools.
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He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard
bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
At Speechworks we
help our clients learn how to communicate in a way that connects and
persuades. If you’re interested in becoming a great communicator
give us a call at 404-266-0888 or check out our website at
www.speechworks.net. |
